RE: Belgian dioxin scare health risks "unlikely"

["Peter Vanhoutte" <peter.vanhoutte@ping.be>]

A few remarks on the Belgian Report. The article in Nature was in fact
written by prof. Bernard from the Leuven university. Bernard was and is the
only scientist until now, who has the results of all the analysis of
possible contaminated chickens and meat. Scientifically spoken, it is
impossible to verify the statement from Bernard in Nature. As long as the
Belgian autorities don't allow other scientists to evaluate the results, you
have to be very carefull with this kind of articles. Prof. Bernard is a
toxicologist, known for minimizing the health risks of dioxins.

Peter Vanhoutte


-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: dioxin-l@essential.org [mailto:dioxin-l@essential.org]Namens Dian
R. Deevey
Verzonden: woensdag 22 september 1999 20:59
Aan: Multiple recipients of list DIOXIN-L
Onderwerp: Re: Belgian dioxin scare health risks "unlikely"


Alan Watson wrote:

> But what if those eating eggs/ chicken were also fish or fish oil
consumers?
>
> -------------------------
> Belgian dioxin scare health risks "unlikely"
> ENDS Daily - 17/09/99
> -------------------------
> The crisis over dioxin contamination of Belgian livestock
> that swept through Europe in June, carrying Belgium's
> government with it (ENDS Daily 15 June) is "very
> unlikelyÖ[to] cause adverse health effects on the general
> population," a team of scientists has reported.  In a
> letter to this week's edition of the scientific journal,
> Nature, the scientists claim that it would require
> consumption of 30-40 meals of highly contaminated chicken
> or eggs to double the human body's burden of
> polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dioxin.  "Even in such
> an extreme case," the body levels achieved would be no more
> than expected in someone regularly eating contaminated
> seafood.  Based at Leuven University and the Belgian
> agriculture ministry, the scientists estimate that a total
> of 50kg of PCBs and 1g of dioxins were accidentally mixed
> into the recycled fat that was then processed into animal
> feed.  The note that the pattern of the contamination was
> an "almost exact replica" of outbreaks of poultry poisoning
> by polychlorinated compounds that occurred repeatedly in
> the USA and Japan in the 1950s and 1970s.
>
> Contacts:  Nature (http://www.nature.com), tel: +44 171 833
> 4000.  References: "Food contamination by PCBs and
> dioxins," Nature, Vol. 410, pp 231-232.
>
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